User:Gossipyummy/Linda Trolinder

Family and Education

Early Life

Linda Trolinder was born September 1st, 1963. Dallas, Texas is where she called home until about 5th grade when she and her family moved to west Texas, near Lubbock. She would spend summers working on her grandparent's cotton farm, which sparked her passion for agriculture. Both of her parents came from cotton farming backgrounds, further compounding the immersion she had in the industry.

Family

Both of Trolinder's parents set prestigious examples, resulting in 3 out of her 4 siblings to achieve advanced degrees. Her father, Edgar Leon Trolinder, obtained his degree in Industrial engineering and became the Vice president of Texas Instruments. Norma Lee Glover-Trolinder, her mother, went back to school in order to obtain her PhD. She is now regarded as a pioneer in Plant Biotechnology as she invented pivotal Intellectual property during her time working at with the United States Department of Agriculture. This in turn led to the creation of the first transgenic cotton which was used by Monsanto.

Trolinder is married to Dr. Robert Wright, a Geneticist. She is a mother of three: Merrida Childress, Laurel Sylva, and Randall Koonce. Between them, she has nine grandchildren total.

Education

Trolinder began pursuing her first degree at San Angelo College, known today as Angelo State University. She transferred after her sophomore year to Texas Tech University. This is where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular biology in the class of 1989. Trolinder's academic journey does not end here. She chose to further her education by pursuing a graduate degree. With Dr. Candace Haigler as her Doctoral advisor, Trolinder herself became a Doctor after achieving her PhD in Biology in the class of 1995.

Career

After completing multiple degrees, Dr. Trolinder moved into the Private sector by co-founding SouthPlains Biotechnologies Inc. with her mother (Dr. Glover-Trolinder). Dr. Trolinder served as the Vice President and Co-owner while taking on responsibilities as the General manager and Laboratory Director. Upon conducting research to generate new intellectual property, they provided transformation services. They were specifically focused on aspects of Abiotic stress and Insect control in crops and delved into trait discovery activities. During these years

They ran this company together until 1998, when her father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Given the circumstances, they felt that their next move was to sell SouthPlains Biotechnologies Inc. to another company called AgrEvo. It was due to their pioneering reputation in plant biotechnology and discovery of Agrobacterium that they chose this company to associate with.

Through acquisitions, Trolinder began working for Bayer AG as an Elite Event Coordinator at their Headquarters in Lubbock, Texas. During this time, she was a contributing author in a United States Department of Agriculture dossier that resulted in the registration of Bayer's first GM cotton product. This fell under her responsibilities of supporting registration with Government agencies and supporting licensing activities. Her regular tasks were involved with determining commercial proof of concept and technical fit for commercialization. She also successfully designed, staffed, and managed a new quality control laboratory.

In 2003, Trolinder was promoted to Cotton Trait Manager. Under this title, she staffed 3 more quality control laboratories and was granted her first product patent. Due to her diligence in this role, Bayer was able to launch LibertyLink cotton, their first GM trait package for cotton seeds.

Trolinder became the Cotton Development Manager in 2005, where she selected three products to be commercialized. Furthermore, she filed two more patents during this time. This resulted in a Revenue stream greater than 50,000,000 Euro per year. Her management reached scientists across the United States and even Puerto Rico.

2007 brought new scenery to Trolinder as her career brought her overseas. In Gent, West-Vlaanderen Belgium, Trolinder was successful in her role as the Cotton Research and Development Manager. During this time she oversaw scientists in programs across Belgium and the United States. She was concurrently an active member of the Research Leadership Team, Research Portfolio Committee, and Global Project Team (and Sub Team Leader).

In 2009, Trolinder came back to Lubbock, Texas as the Head of Trait Development, V.P.. She belonged to several teams and business units including R&D Target Steering Committee, R&D Process Committee, Research Indication Committee-Weed Management, Research Portfolio Committee, Development Portfolio committee, Global Cotton Crop Team, Global Soybean Crop Team, Trait Strategy Team, and Global Project Team. Also during this time, a whopping 6 new trait packages were launched, generating over 100 Million Euro in annual revenue. These include Liberty soybean 2009, GlyTol cotton & Glytol/LibertyLInk Cotton 2011, GlyTol TwinLink cotton 2014, GlyTol TwinLink Plus Cotton 2017, BalanceGT Soy 2017.

BASF officially acquired several businesses and assets from Bayer in 2018. Trolinder remained in high status within her division under a new title, Vice President, Trait Development. This expanded her breadth to include soybean, wheat, canola, sunflower, and rice on top of her passion, cotton.

Trolinder's current title is Senior Vice President, Field Crops Seeds & Traits R&D (Research & Development) with BASF, Agricultural Solutions. She achieved this promotion in 2020, which brought her to Durham, North Carolina. Trolinder says that she has much work to do, but is looking to wind down in order to spend time with her family.

Motivation

Trolinder knows that her work is important to people across the globe. Knowledge gained from Agricultural Research keeps societies from catastrophes such as Famine and the Dust Bowl. Trolinder wishes that the successes in this field could be communicated as much as the villainizing campaigns.

Despite controversy, Trolinder continues to push for change that she hopes secures or improves the quality of life for upcoming generations. During her travels, she has seen children without enough to eat and wants to alleviate food insecurity worldwide. Trolinder cites her own grandchildren's futures as a motivator in her work.

Amidst the complications of rapid population growth and the decline of arable land, Trolinder points to advancements in agricultural technology as the solution. In order for society to continue to thrive, she thinks it's due time that people review how they consume. Better production methods and reduction of food waste are a few subjects she highlights.

References

American Seed Trade Association. “Speaker Details. Speaker Details: ASTA CSS and Seed Expo 2020 Virtual, Swoogo, Dec. 2020, https://asta.swoogo.com/css2020/speaker/178404/linda-trolinder. ”

Justia Patents. “Linda Trolinder Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search.” Patents by Inventor Linda Trolinder, Justia Patents, 23 July 2019, https://patents.justia.com/inventor/linda-trolinder.

King-Wilson, Miracle, et al. “Joint News Release - BASF, Corteva, and MS Technologies.” 29 June 2022.

Ponytail Ag. “Ponytail AG: Women in Science + AG with Linda Trolinder.” YouTube, BASF, 4 Feb. 2022, https://youtu.be/fzTuJVDiz-k.

Trolinder, Linda K. “Linda Trolinder - SVP, Head of R&D Field Crops Seeds & Traits - Linkedin.” Linda Trolinder, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-trolinder-137b43b.